Healthy Mooncakes, Tasty Mooncakes

Last time we had a go at finding healthy lunch deliveries for all of you so that eating healthy can be more convenient and tastes good at the same time. Now with Mid-Autumn Festival coming soon, we take up the challenge of finding healthy mooncakes. Don’t get me wrong, eating an entire mooncake in one go is never healthy, calories-wise. How they can be made healthy is by the preparation method and choice of ingredients. Using that as a benchmark, we found twopatisseries that make healthy, tasty mooncakes. This means… there will be more reason to make Mid-Autumn’s day your cheat day, with delicious mooncakes AND less guilt.

Chocoelf

No Sugar

Chocoelf’s healthy mooncakes begin from a simple idea – no refined sugar. Normally such an idea is quite rare for any sweet treat. Yet Chocoelf managed to do so. Their fillings and pastry skins are naturally sweetened with maltitol, an extract from corn and wheat. Their Soy Yolk and Pure Lotus mooncakes have been endorsed by the Health Promotion Board as Healthier Choice mooncakes because they have 25% less saturated fat compared to regular mooncakes.

The four mooncakes that we got to taste test

Matthew

Melissa

Sugar-Free Lotus Paste & Double Egg Yolk

S$40 (2 pc) S$76 4 pc)

The double-yolk is a familiar and safe flavour. The egg-yolk is surprisingly light and not as filling as the traditional mooncake.

I’m not a huge fan of double-yolk mooncakes because I’ve always felt that the lotus paste should take centrestage. That said, Chocoelf’s double-yolk tasted exactly like how I’d expect a mooncake to taste! As such, you need not worry about losing flavour despite the lack of cane sugar and pork lard.

Sugar-Free Lotus Paste & Soy Yolk

S$38 (2 pc) S$72 (4 pc)

The Soy-Yolk is my favourite, partly for my preference towards soy products, their benefits and the flavour, albeit the soy taste being quite distinct in the mooncake. The Soy Yolk has more flavour than that of the double-yolk. Big Plus for me.

This was intriguing to me. How were they going to make soy taste like yolk and therefore, make this mooncake vegetarian?

I wouldn’t say that I was too impressed because the soy ‘yolk’ did not have that distinct salty and slightly sticky yolk taste. There was a slight soy taste to it which balances the mooncake out.

Sugar-Free Pure Lotus Paste

S$38 (2 pc) S$72 (4pc)

The Sugar-Free mooncake is underrated by most but I have to say that it was quite flavourful and had a refreshing natural sweetness in the filling. The almond flakes in the filling gave some variety in the eating experience.

Ok…this is where the true test of the lotus paste comes. I must say that I’m impressed at the smoothness of the paste and you wouldn’t know that there wasn’t any pork lard involved. That said, it does lack a little ‘melt in your mouth’ feel which is probably attributable to the lard in your regular mooncakes.

Sugar-Free Mixed Nuts (Wu Ren)

S$38 (2 pc) S$72 (4 pc)

The Wu Ren mooncake was nutty, both in taste and aesthetic, and quite filling. One of the few times I’ve indulged in this flavour. Normally my preferences drive me towards having a go at the smoother fillings.

I’ve never been fond of Wu Ren mooncakes because the taste of it is usually a little less than desirable to me due to the dried tangerine and some recipes use Chinese ham, which doesn’t really go well in my opinion.

Thank goodness Chocoelf’s Wu Ren does not have ham nor that weird taste. It’s strangely quite palatable. Do I spy my little eye on macadamia nuts? That’s a win in my books. Nonetheless, I’ll still be reaching out for the lotus paste ones.

We did not manage to try their Snowskin series, which still has their sugar-free lotus paste but with various truffle ‘yolks’ such as Dark Truffle, Green Tea and Passionfruit. All sold at S$38 (2 pc) and S$72 (4 pc). Their mooncakes can be purchased online at www.chocoelf.com or at pop-up stores as follows:

Takashimaya Square and B2 Food Hall (31 Aug to 4 Oct)

Vivocity (5 Sep to 4 Oct)

Tampines Mall (20 Sep to 3 Oct)

WéWé Bakery

The six snowskin mooncakes with delectable truffle centres, flavoured with natural fruit and vegetables

WéWé Bakery features mooncakes that are lower in sugar and made with natural, fresh ingredients. The snow skins are coloured and flavoured with fruit and vegetables such as beetroot, yam and matcha. With a French baker at the helm, the truffles were definitely something to look forward to.

The traditional series with Single Yolk, Double Yolk, Lotus with Watermelon Seeds and Wu Ren.

The bag which held the boxes of mooncakes were also quite presentable, with drawstrings so that you can really present a gift to your elders. Really thoughtful packaging!

Matthew

Melissa

Traditional series

The low-sugar options of the traditional flavours retains the typical tastes while using less sugar in the preparation. Overall a tasteful foursome and definitely will taste better with some Chinese tea to pair.

The traditional series is really what you’d expect it to be – traditional. Glad that it’s lower in sugar though and there is no lack in terms of sweetness and flavour.

I’m still not a fan of the Wu Ren mooncake although I liked how almonds were used. There was a slight lemongrass flavour to this particular Wu Ren, which was interesting but still not able to convince me to eat more than a quarter of it.

Snowskin series

White Lotus with Dark Chocolate & Baileys Irish Cream Truffle

This is a familiar taste and the choice of selecting dark chocolate with Baileys Irish cream is a wise flavour pairing. Needless to say, the modern take on the core filling contrasted enough with the traditional filling.

I felt that the chocolate snowskin was a safe pairing but there wasn’t a strong chocolate taste in the skin. Probably because the truffle centre is meant to be the star of this mooncake.

I loved the Baileys Irish Cream truffle and could just eat it on its own.

Yam with White Chocolate Truffle

This was an interesting combination. The yam flavour was sweeter than expected and the white chocolate core has a rather milky texture to it.

This, I love. I’ve always liked yam and this was a nice mix between traditional flavours and a novel white chocolate core!

Matcha with Dark Chocolate and Matcha Truffle

This already strikes as a healthier option just with the ingredients used. The flavour is popular and good, leaving a pleasant aftertaste and fragrance in the mouth.

I liked the balance between sweet and bitter in this mooncake. Like what Matthew said, there was a nice fragrant aftertaste which makes you want to reach out for more.

Beetroot with Dark Chocolate Truffle

The subtle beetroot flavour from the skin was deliberately subdued and this brought out the full flavour of the dark chocolate. The flavour was well-thought and is one of my preferred choices from WéWé.

I’m more intrigued by the colour of this mooncake than the actual flavours. It’s very attractive and you’ll definitely want to cut into this first to find out whether it really tastes like beetroot.

I must sat that the beetroot flavour was quite mild and it went well with the lotus paste and dark chocolate truffle. Quite a safe choice in the end.

Lychee with Dark Chocolate and Lychee Truffle

This had an interesting blend to it. The flavour profile felt layered. The lychee filling was distinct but not overwhelming. The truffle core tasted a little like light peanut butter, before the lychee notes surfaced. This flavour profile was definitely the most novel experience so far in this review.

This was my favourite mooncake by WéWé! It reminded me a lot of lychee martini, minus the booze. Be warned. This is super addictive.

Mango with Dark Chocolate and Mango Truffle

The mango flavour was really distinct in the snowskin. The filling was very light and there was almost no mango filling in the truffle.

Very strong mango flavour on the first bite but I am still a bit ambivalent about this mooncake. It tasted like how you’d expect it but I felt that the chocolate and mango did not quite go with the lotus paste.

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